A post on Slickdeals.net describes how to get a $20 credit from EA's Origin service that can be used to make a $19.99 purchase essentially free. Apparently the credit is offered for the completion of a simple survey. Thanks Siliconera.

Verno wrote on Oct 15, 2012, 10:41:Man their prices on old games suck, no wonder people flock to Steam.

Origin's regular prices for those same old games are the same as on Steam. And, EA has had heavily discounted sales on those same EA games on Origin that were offered for free with the coupon. People flock to Steam, but it's not because of its prices on EA games.

Origin's never going to be able to compete with Steam on third-party games unless it greatly expands it catalog of those games and/or it entices third-party developers and publishers to exclusively tie their games to its platform as Steam has done. In the abscence of that what EA can do through promotions like this past one is encourage people to purchase future EA games that require Origin and encourage them to use Origin to make those purchases.

I doubt it. The whole idea and content of the survey was to encourage users to use Origin. All six of its questions were basically "Since Origin does X, will you use it?". It wasn't really designed for feedback as much as promotion and encouragement to use Origin. The coupon code was intended for one free game per Origin account, and that restriction was enforced shortly after people starting sharing the code. So, since the survey was so short anyway and since it was intended to get people to use Origin, the fact that the code was shared with people who didn't necessarily complete the survey didn't change the intent of the promotion.

I don't know how many people received the survey invite (I did and I had never installed or used Origin), but I assume I got it from being on EA's email marketing list. That list has to have millions of email addresses on it given the popularity of EA's games. If every one of those users got the survey invite, that's already millions of users who would have gotten a free game. So, I doubt EA is upset that its promotion exploded the use of Origin at the expense of some old games which it has already sold countless times very cheaply in sales at Amazon, Gamersgate, etc. and has given away in the past during other promotions.

In any case EA showed real class in honoring the redeemed games. When leaked/exploited promotions like this happened on Steam in the past (Dirt 3, Dead Island, etc.), Valve always removed the games from every user's account that redeemed the codes even though there was no way to tell who was legitimately supposed to have them and who wasn't, and I know that from personal experience.

Prez wrote on Oct 14, 2012, 09:27:I don't have a whole lot of experience with Origin (what little I do have was enough to learn that it utterly sucks balls) but as far as I know with the games on offer here you really only ever need to run Origin once to install and activate the game, then never again. That was how it was when my friend gave me a code for The Old Republic (HORRIBLE game!). Unless they changed it anyway. If it's still true though it really shouldn't be enough to stop you from buying a game that doesn't explicitly require Origin to run.

Depends on the game. Most new EA games require Origin for every launch. TOR is the exception. Non-EA games only require Origin when you install, which is one advantage it has over Steam.

Prez wrote on Oct 14, 2012, 09:27:I don't have a whole lot of experience with Origin (what little I do have was enough to learn that it utterly sucks balls) but as far as I know with the games on offer here you really only ever need to run Origin once to install and activate the game, then never again. That was how it was when my friend gave me a code for The Old Republic (HORRIBLE game!). Unless they changed it anyway. If it's still true though it really shouldn't be enough to stop you from buying a game that doesn't explicitly require Origin to run.

It will start up the Origin service and have you log in for online games that utilize its features, although you can still play without an Internet connection (as was the case with NFS The Run).

Honestly, the client sucks, but the actual process of playing games through Origin is pretty unobtrusive (not to mention seems to use considerably less system resources than Steam).

did my survy and god dont work does this mean we can form a class action suit for each 20 credit we all didnt get potentionly everyone you know and all they know can sue EA now. mostly just for the fun of it lol

Prez wrote on Oct 14, 2012, 09:27:I don't have a whole lot of experience with Origin (what little I do have was enough to learn that it utterly sucks balls) but as far as I know with the games on offer here you really only ever need to run Origin once to install and activate the game, then never again. That was how it was when my friend gave me a code for The Old Republic (HORRIBLE game!). Unless they changed it anyway. If it's still true though it really shouldn't be enough to stop you from buying a game that doesn't explicitly require Origin to run.

SWTOR was different, though partly because it's an MMO. Those always have their own launchers to begin with, but since it was already in beta by the time Origin was released, they had an entirely separate infrastructure setup on the game's website for downloads, and said launcher wasn't programmed to interact with Origin at all. I'm pretty sure just about anything else you buy and install from there, including older games made digital, will require Origin be running to launch them.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with Origin (what little I do have was enough to learn that it utterly sucks balls) but as far as I know with the games on offer here you really only ever need to run Origin once to install and activate the game, then never again. That was how it was when my friend gave me a code for The Old Republic (HORRIBLE game!). Unless they changed it anyway. If it's still true though it really shouldn't be enough to stop you from buying a game that doesn't explicitly require Origin to run.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Mordecai Walfish wrote on Oct 14, 2012, 06:34:Perhaps this is EA/Origin's attempt to inflate their user# statistics by allowing all of these accounts w/ free games to be made over the weekend that they can mark as individual users..

/tinfoilhat

(well it is shady-ass EA and I wouldnt really be surprised to see some investor-enslaved member of management employing shady tactics to make an annual/quarterly report's numbers look better)

"Origin has the highest number of registered users!" (well no shit, since everyone each made dozens of accounts now for all the free games...)